Of Power
by Elisyniac
Summary: A planet marked unsafe for invasion has been conquered by an unknown Irken entity. An Irken learns what it means to have power. !Possibly slash later on.


Disclaimer: The characters in this story do not belong to me. This disclaimer applies to all the other chapters that will follow this one.

x

The Almighty Tallest had always been used to invaders failing their mission. It wasn't always possible to conquer a planet, especially if the race that inhabited the planet was particularly advanced or hostile. Most invaders terminated the mission and returned to Irk in order to receive a new assignment, but a good percentage of them self destructed in order to keep Irk's secrets safe, especially if they were captured by the enemy race.

Unfortunately, the one Irken they _wanted _to fail never seemed to be defeated.

The Tallest were starting to think that Zim had finally been captured, or had been killed by own of his own monstrous creations, for the Irken hadn't sent them a transmission in quite a while. The annoying Irken called for the Tallest almost every day to report on his 'mission', and when there had been a lull in transmissions, they couldn't bring themselves to care.

So they relaxed, content to believe that the pest had finally been exterminated by whatever means. Even if the race that lived on Earth found Zim's base, they wouldn't be able to do anything with the technology before it self destructed.

The Tallest and all of the Armada had more interesting things to worry about. Yes, for recently there had been something very strange going on. One planet that had been marked 'unable for invasion' for Impending Doom II was showing signs of Irken activity.

Invader Tuuz had been assigned to this planet, the planet called Yuvanal. It was not like most planets that had been marked for invasion, because not much was known about it. Planet Yuvanal was not like planet Vort, which had been successfully conquered by Invader Larb. There was nothing to describe Yuvanal with, like Vort had been Home of the World's Comfiest Couch. It wasn't likely that Yuvanal could be made into a shopping center planet, or something akin to Foodcourtia or Callnowia.

Yuvanal was a beautiful planet, covered with lush alien plant life and there had been no reports of an intelligent race living on it, but when Invader Tuuz was sent to Yuvanal, he had quickly discovered that this was not the case. There lived a race that the Irken could not describe for fear of collapsing into another episode. He had sent the Armada a panicked transmission requesting leave of the planet, stating that it was impossible to invade due to the race that lived there. So he had returned home, and lived in the mental therapy bay due to severe trauma to his mind. It was hard to scare an Irken, but something had done just that.

The Tallest had promptly ordered that Yuvanal be taken off the list for conquest.

They were content to leave it at that, but the technicians that monitored all Irken activity had noticed a rather large spike in an ignored area of the universe. Upon investigating, they found that someone had landed on Yuvanal and a good deal of Irken technology was in use there.

To the dismay of all of the Armada, the technology could not be traced and nothing more was known about what exactly was going on there. It was hard enough to get any information on Yuvanal, but now it seemed completely impossible. Whatever the technology was, it was not manufactured by official Irken suppliers, and must have been made from scratch. There were very few Irkens capable of even coming close to such a feat, and the Armada collectively scratched their heads.

Something very strange was going on.

Tallest Red entered the bridge of the Armada to a very confused situation. Technicians were running everywhere, babbling to each other. Although it was protocol to stop and salute to the Tallest upon their entrance, no one noticed him.

"Hey!" he screamed, annoyed at not being noticed. "What's going on in here?"

All movement ceased and the technicians turned to look at him as one, antennae quivering in fear. The lead technician stepped forward, saluting nervously.

"My Tallest, the data collectors have shown that… well, a planet has been conquered, my lord." The technician, whose name Red vaguely remembered to be Culxa, lowered his head in respect.

"…And? That's what's supposed to happen, you moron. What planet have we gained control of?" Red sighed. Pressure was starting to build behind his eyes like it always did when he had to deal with the idiotic crew.

"Well… that's the problem, my lord. Somehow, planet Yuvanal has been conquered."

Silence fell in the room. Red was staring at the technician with a blankness in his eyes that sent antennae quivering again. Nobody said anything for a long moment, and that was the moment that Purple floated up behind Red.

"Hey!" Purple crowed, poking the back of his partner's head. "Why are we all standing around… like…" He trailed off, eyes widening. "Oh no. That look… are we out of snacks?! Quick, change the course to Foodcourtia! We can't be out of snacks!"

Red clenched his jaw, eyes narrowing in frustration as the other Tallest continued to ramble. "No, Purple," he ground out. "Yuvanal was just conquered, and I'm waiting for these idiot technicians to give me more information." He ignored the sound of Purple dropping his drink in shock, knowing a cleaning drone would mop it up.

"My Tallest," the technician continued, bowing his head even lower in shame. "We do not know anything else. There is no sign of Irken life on the planet any longer, but the planet has been completely taken over. It seems that the native race has been enslaved for the time being, as protocol requires."

"Are you kidding? You can't find out _anything _else?" Red growled.

"No, my Tallest, not without setting course to the planet to investigate."

"Do that, then," Purple said before Red could disagree. "Planets don't just conquer themselves. Something else is at work here."

"It could… be dangerous, my Tallest. Are you sure we should set the course?"

"I don't care if it's dangerous. Like Purple said, we have to find out what happened. Set the course _now _and get out of my way." Red pushed past the technicians, who immediately scattered to their stations to do as he said. He hovered over to his usual spot in front of the main window of the Massive, sitting down and rubbing between his eyes in frustration.

That day, the Massive changed course and began to head to Yuvanal.

x

It was a difficult thing, to live as one of the shortest Irkens to ever exist. Zim knew this, because he had always been ridiculed on his home planet, and everything he had done to try to make himself seem bigger had led to his eventual exile.

Being exiled from Irk wasn't common, yet Zim was one of the most famous exiles. Especially because he refused to acknowledge his banishment, instead determined to believe he was an Invader. And why shouldn't he? It was the job that had been wired into his pak upon hatching, even if it had been changed at one point in his banishment. It was the job that he was determined to do.

Zim had felt ill from the moment he stepped out of his house on that Thursday morning, and Irkens rarely got sick. There was a strange aching originating from his pak, spreading down his spine and making him nauseous. Every step he took towards the school (so cleverly named Skool) made him feel worse, but he was determined to make it to class in order to torment Dib and plot his conquest of Earth. By the time he sat down at his desk he was shaking with the effort of staying upright. He made it just in time, for at that moment the bell rang and Miss Bitters swept into the classroom, glaring at the class.

"Get to work!" she snapped, pointing a clawed hand at the assignment on the board. Zim didn't really care what it was; it was unimportant and he wouldn't be able to concentrate on much as the pain and nausea grew stronger.

"What's the matter, Zim?" Dib cackled, noticing Zim's shakiness after staring at him for a few moments. "Terrified, are you? Have you finally realized that I'm going to reveal you to the entire world and have you sliced open on an autopsy table while humanity rejoices my victory?"

Zim's lip curled in a scowl, but he was hit with a fresh wave of pain before he could retaliate. He shuddered, eyes darting around as he tried to ignore the horrible agony spreading from his pak. Slowly he became aware of a quiet beeping coming from his pak, and upon hearing it, leaped up from his desk.

"I have to go! I just remember that I have to…um… Bye!" he all but screamed as he fled the classroom, leaving behind unimpressed students and a very suspicious Dib.

Zim activated his spider legs as soon as he was out of the classroom, not caring that he was seen by a good amount of humans. His pak was malfunctioning and he had to get to his base before the error became fatal.

By the time he burst into the green house that was his base, the beeping was nearly ear-splitting. Ignoring Gir on the couch, he scrambled down into the depths of his base, yelling to the computer as he did.

"Computer! My pak is malfunctioning! I need you to determine the error and fix it at once!" he jumped onto the curving chair of his recharging station, leaning forward and letting the wires from the computer attach to his pak. Thankfully, the computer didn't waste any time being sarcastic and went right to work. A type of anesthesia was administered while the computer sifted through the information in his Pak, checking for any malfunctions.

"Uh," the computer droned, sounding slightly more serious than usual. "I don't know if I should tell you this, but your pak is really messed up. Didn't you ever go to pak checks?"

"Pak checks? What are you talking about? My pak was always so perfect that I never had to go to one!" Zim gloated, feeling his ego swell with pride. He had been told many times that he shouldn't bother going to the checks, because there was definitely nothing wrong with him.

"Riiight," the computer groaned. "Well, that's a load of dooky. You've got a lot of problems in this thing. Right now it's malfunctioning because the data entered into it seems to have been blocked, and coupled with all the other problems, it's overloading. I'm just going to… fix everything right now. I've got no idea what'll happen to you once your pak can function normally, but you probably won't die."

"Probably?!" Zim shrieked, squirming in sudden panic. "There's nothing wrong with my pak! Don't do anything--!"

His protests were cut off swiftly as the computer switched him into stasis mode, letting him doze while the work was done. For once in his life, Zim was quiet.

x

He awoke hours later to a world of dizziness and confusion. He was slumped in his curved chair, and from the computer monitor came a steady beeping along with a screen filled with his vitals. The pain and nausea had faded, but he felt sluggish and dizzy.

"All done!" the computer chirped, its voice immensely grating. "This was in your pak. Some sort of chip to keep it from normal function."

Clenching his jaw at the annoying sound of the computer's voice, Zim opened his eyes slightly and gazed at the chip the computer's metallic arm was holding up for him to see. It looked familiar… yes, that was the Irken symbol on it, was it not? Having that symbol on the chip would make it impossible for his pak to recognize it being hostile software until it activated.

"Computer," he shuddered, closing his eyes against the dim light of the recharging room. "Wake me up in a few more hours. Then I'll look at the chip. Don't feel good…" He mumbled as he slipped back into stasis.

"But--" the computer groaned. Zim wasn't supposed to go back into stasis until he could tell him what the chip had been blocking! This was going to get very messy, very quickly.

x

Zim was roused back into wakefulness almost a day later, but not by the computer. No, the first thing he was aware of was a blinding, white-hot pain. He was already screaming, back arching and body convulsing. His skin was on fire, the pain resonated to his very core! When he was able to put a coherent thought together through the pain, he was able to issue a command to the computer before he was taken over by pain again.

"Fix it!" he screeched.

"I can't do anything! This is because of the chip; you're just going to have to wait it out."

Zim's screams grew louder and more agonized until the pain finally broke, leaving him panting and sore. His body was throbbing with pain, and small aftershocks of agony made him spasm.

"Wh…what happened?" He groaned, unable even to move. His joints ached fiercely, and his uniform felt terribly painful against his sensitive skin.

"Er, you didn't let me tell you what the chip was blocking. Stupid." The computer grumbled, still holding the chip in front of Zim's face. "See, it was making your pak purposefully malfunction, blocking several key aspects of your development such as growth and mental health."

Zim paused, eyes opening slowly as he stared at the chip in disbelief. "Growth and mental health?" he repeated slowly, voice hoarse from screaming. It seemed impossible, but as he thought about it… Zim had experienced exactly one growth spurt in his life, and that was when he was still a smeet. After that, he had not grown a single bit, making him one of the shortest Irkens to ever live. The rest of his smeet mates had experienced growth spurts regularly, shooting high above him. As for his mental health, he had always been a little different than the rest of his fellow Irkens.

Suddenly he felt like he was thinking very clearly, as if he could finally see the world around him for what it was.

"Then…what was the pain, computer?" he asked quietly, antennae flattened back with the shock of this discovery.

"Well, your body decided now would be a good time to catch you up on all that growth you missed. That's, uh, why I was trying to tell you not to go to sleep before I could tell you about it."

Zim's eyes widened in shock, and he pushed himself up in the chair to see what had happened to him. He immediately regretted it when the movement reminded him that he was still in extreme pain, and he cried out, clenching his eyes shut. When the pain faded, he opened his eyes again and nearly passed out.

He had grown about a head and a half taller than the height he had been before. If he were to compare this height to another Irken, he would be roughly the size of most of the technicians on the Massive.

"Yeah, that's definitely an improvement. Besides that, you're still supposed to grow some. I'd say you'd be only about a head shorter than the Tallest when you stop growing." The computer droned, sounding greatly amused at the Irken's shock.

Zim fainted.

x

Notes: Hm, this is interesting. I'm not sure what inspired me to write this, but I just finished the first chapter. I pretty much know where I'm going with this. Unfortunately, I might not ever finish this. I guess we'll have to see where it takes us, huh? If I keep up, things will get very interesting soon.

Just thought I'd mention it, this story will be romance at one point. I know who Zim will be paired with, and let's just say that this person is approximately a head taller than his projected height. However, it's not going to happen anytime soon and it won't be exactly… sappy, you could say.

The chip might seem a bit plot-holey now, but it'll be explained. Zim might also seem a bit too rational-thinking at the end, but he's _not exactly thinking clearly. _If he was, he would be pissed.

And that's all I have to say.


End file.
